City and Colour Interview
Interview with Dallas Green of City and Colour
Words by Brendan Monteiro / Photo’s by Marcus Maschwitz
City and Colours’ Dallas Green sits in a corner sofa upstairs at the Forum, inside the confounds of the little room he tells of the troubles and tribulations as well as the joys of being out on the road with not only one, but two successful bands. Stardom has most definitely not got to Dallas’ head, he’s soft and humble and just generally the nicest guy you could meet. In this interview we tried to find out a little bit more about the man behind City and Colour, what we learned however is there is way more to Dallas Green than you could have ever imagined.
City and Colour is a very clever way of hiding your own name in the band name, I only realised it a week ago so how many people are in the dark about the actual meaning of the name?
It’s Ok nobody has ever figured it out. You know when you have to go and apply for something and somebody is filling in a form and they ask you your first name, last name and date of birth? Well they said first name and I said “Dallas” and they said last name and I said “Green”, then they said “with an E on the end” and I replied “no, it’s just like the colour, like the city and the colour”. I did that a few times when I was younger and when it came time to put out my record I knew I wasn’t going to call it Dallas, I wanted to call it something else. I just thought that sounds kind of cool and is still sort of my name and that way it never has to be the Dallas Green band, no matter what I want to do with it. I can do whatever I want with, I can bring in a thousand musicians or I can just play by myself.
It really is a great way to be able to name your band.
Well thanks to my parents for giving me a good enough name that I could do that.
Your parents named you after a baseball icon if I’m correct?
Yeah, Dallas Green
Ok so both names are the same, from what I got from it was that it was just your first name.
No his last name was Green as well, same as mine. That is why my Dad named me Dallas because it was totally after him.
It must be nice to have some sort of heritage behind your name.
Yeah it is and actually a friend of mine just got me a baseball bat signed by Dallas Green as a gift.
That must be a really cool addition to the mantlepiece.
It blew my mind because I never thought of reaching out and trying to get something of his like that. He was actually a player before he was a coach and it’s just awesome.
Your in two bands that are both doing extremely well, how hard is it to juggle those with married life?
It’s very difficult, mostly in the last few years it’s gotten a lot more difficult. I have been doing it for about 5 years now but the last 2 years is where City And Colour has kind of turned into it’s own thing. The first few years I didn’t really do much with it but put that first record out. Since I’ve brought Bring Me Your Love out I have found myself living 2 lives and then a year ago I got married so now it’s I have City And Colour, I have Alexisonfire, I have my marriage and I have just myself. So I have these 4 lives that I have to somehow find time to do and I think I am kind of on the verge of a nervous breakdown but I’m trying my best to do it all so we will see what happens. Maybe I’ll go crazy, spend some time in a hospital and then write a record about that.
With that there must be a lot of responsibility on your shoulders.
Yeah.
Not only to your wife but to the fans too.
Exactly, thats the thing, the reason why it’s gotten more complicated is because I feel so obligated. I feel obligated to go and play for people who have show so much attention, who have been so involved emotionally and invested their time into City And Colour. I feel like I need to show them some attention just as they have shown the music attention. With Alexis we tour so much so it’s hard for me to do that. It’s a wonderful suprise but it’s something that I never dreamed of. I never thought I would be able to play in one band that people liked let alone 2.
And possibly a third in the future.
Yeah, you never know, I might start something with my wife.
So would I be right in thinking that City and Colour is a lot more personal to you?
Yeah City And Colour is defintely more a personal diatribe where I can write about anything. With Alexis we write the songs so collaboratively that it ends up being just that, a collaboration. There is definitely topics that I just wouldn’t ever bring and there’s lyrics that I write that I would just never bring into an Alexis song. Because of the fact that we all sing them together I could never ask George to sing about something that was personal to me, just like he wouldn’t do that. That is why we try to come up with the topics together and write our own lyrics based on the subject that we decided to write the song about.
The lyrics to City and Colour seem a little dark at times and you can get a sense of the pain that your talking about whereas Alexis seems a little more broader.
With Alexis it’s experiences and more observational views of things going on in the world, that’s sort of what Alexis is and we write about the things that we have experienced together and that frustrate us or affect us as a whole. It tends to be a little less personal, it’s still very personal and the songs do mean a lot to us but we tend to write something that as a group we all understand.
You mentioned having 4 lives, what keeps you sane on tour?
I have no idea, lately it’s been nothing and I have just been losing my mind. I love skateboarding and I have been skateboarding my whole life. I do that as much as I can but at the same time if I hurt myself I am kind of fucked. I’m sort of weary of that because about 6 years ago I was on tour and broke my ankle and then had to wear a cast on tour. I read and I try to write, that’s another thing, I listen to the music and try to write on tour and that helps keep me sane.
You don’t like to skate on tour because of the worry of hurting yourself on tour and disappointing people but how how is it when tours are taking you around the world past some of the most famous skate venues in the world?
Yeah like I still do, I have never brought my skateboard over here and I don’t know why. It’s probably because I know that there is so much to explore that I will go out and won’t come back. The other day we were in Denver and Denver has this public skatepark. We were 3 blocks away from it and I was like “I have to go over there, it’s like right there!”. So I went over and almost missed the meet and greet that we had to do. The thing about skateboarding, the thing that I love most about it; it’s the only thing that I can do in my life where I don’t worry. I don’t worry and I’m not stressed out and all I think about is skateboarding. When I lay awake at night worrying about songs or just everything like worrying about the next day or something that I know I have to do tomorrow and I just keep thinking about it. Even when I’m on stage I’m thinking about the next song or was the song that we just played good enough and a lot of times I forget to enjoy the moment on stage because I’m thinking too much about what’s going on. With skateboarding I don’t think about anything, I just think about pushing or ollie-ing and that is something that I will never give up until my body can’t do it. I have tried to quit numerous times but it’s just, it’s just in me.
What is your best skateboarding moment.
The proudest moment in my musical, well actually one of the proudest moments in my life was I was in an issue of Thrasher this month. I got a big cover and they did a piece about City And Colour and the whole thing I just talked about skateboarding. I have done a whole lot of cool things in my life and I have been lucky enough to do some really neat stuff but nothing compares to that. I open up that issue and I was like “holy fuck”, you know what I mean.
Yeah, you must of grown up with Thrasher as a kid so I can just imagine.
I have been reading it for 20 years, I have been reading it since I was a kid and I honestly knew that I was never going to be in there as a skateboarder but the fact that I got to talk about skateboarding and my music in Thrasher just blew me away.
Another addition to your mantelpiece I am guessing.
No not yet but I am going to get it and cut that out. I don’t have any of that stuff, any of the accolades or the gold records or any of that stuff I don’t have at my house. It’s all at my parents house but I definitely think I will have to do something with that. I don’t even have all the records we’ve put out.
For interest sake which one’s don’t you have?
Jeez I don’t have any of the Alexis stuff, I think I have the new one. I released these early City And Colour limited E.P’s and I don’t have one of those, you can’t even get those anymore.
Are you sad about that?
No I’m kind of stoked on it, I don’t like it and it’s kind of like living on the past. I don’t like to see what I have done and rather look forward to what I will do.
So moving away from that, what appeals to you more, beautiful guitar melodies or beautiful vocal melodies?
I like to think that my songs are pretty simple, even the melodies I try to keep really simple. A lot of people get hold of me and they’re like “agh I kind figure out this song” and I’m like “really? It’s super easy, just get a capo and move it around”. I think that a simple guitar with a simple voice is more appealing to most people because 90% of the population aren’t musically trained and thy can’t wrap their heads around crazy stuff, whereas everybody can feel just a simple chord progression with a simple melody.
Eastpak Anitidote tour was the last time you were in the UK with Alexis and it saw you at the Forum for 1 night. This time your back with City and Colour for 2 sold out nights at the same venue, how do you feel about the progression City and Colour has made?
It’s pretty crazy and I think that it has a lot to do with the fact that I don’t tour a lot with City And Colour. Maybe people never know when I’m going to come back so plus these are the only 2 shows that I’m doing in the UK so I am sure there are going to be a lot of people that have travelled down. I have no words to describe it, I never thought that that anything was going to happen with City And Colour and I just thought that it was some songs that maybe so of the kids that like Alexis might dig.
Your going to be recording a third album soon, is there any pressure on you to perform?
Not really because my records that they like are just me doing what I do. They are not these crazy put together records that has a crack team of songwriters and are super polished like Radiohead. That is not what I do, I just write songs and people seem to dig it. For instance the first record has 3 or 4 songs that are 6 minutes long with just a guitar and me singing and that takes a lot of patience to get behind that so I don’t feel any pressure. I think I have proven to everybody that I am just going to do what I want to do and most people that like it get that. I think that anybody new coming into it will figure that out early and that will be what is appealing to them, the fact that it is what it is.
And how excited are you to release the next album?
Oh I can’t wait, I have 12 new songs that I love and I can’t wait to record them and play them. There is a bunch that are just me with my guitar and there are a bunch that are that I have demoed at my house and played everything and there is a lot of fun stuff, Lot’s of piano and things like that.
